Monday, June 24, 2013
ALUMNI DONATES TO OPEN CENTRE OF CORRUPTION STUDIES
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Who Take Credit For Indian Government UGC Grants to AMU?
We’ve all had that experience where we work really hard on something and instead of getting recognized for our contribution, we have to sit there and choke back bile when someone else takes credit for the work. It’s infuriating to think about how hard you worked and how much effort you put into a project only to see some other glory-hound or charlatan pass all that effort off as their own.
Heck, I got a taste of that this week. I saw a bunch of traffic going to a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/#!/syed.a.rizvi.963) a self-proclaimed “Management Thinker, HR Guru, and Educational Coach” telling his fans stories about recent additions of new Department of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Department of Neurosurgery to JNMC (Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College) at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh, India.
The bottom line is; it sounds like Sleaze Boy (or “S.B.” for short) needs a developmental talking. If that isn’t in the cards, you’ll need to put some effort into thinking about the SB yourself. Think – AMU is an Indian Government Central University, which gets its financial budget proposed by Indian Central government and approved by the Indian Parliament. A single-handed person draft will be approved by Ministries of Indian Government for a major academic institution in India???
Don’t Put Sleaze Boy In His Place
Don’t contradict him! At best, you’ll embarrass him and he’ll work behind your back to bring you down. At worst, he’ll turn out to be an amoral psychopathic monster who will work behind your back to bring you down with a chainsaw. That would be bad.
Instead, use the comedy improvement technique called “Yes, and…” His remarks are offering you a new reality. Join him. “Congratulate him with others for getting additional academic departments approval for the AMU,” he says. Ok, pretend he’s right. And be the absolute soul of contrition while you clearly define roles and responsibilities so he gets to take full responsibility for his—and only his—contribution.
Get a calm, curious frame of mind by thinking about things that make you curious. Like why politicians all wear exactly the same suit and solid color ties. Approach Sleaze Boy--I mean, Sincere Boy--with a genuine attitude of warmth.
CYB: Cover Your Butt Behavior
You’ve probably noticed this is a lot of trouble. It’s all CYB (cover your butt) behavior. It accomplishes nothing useful except preserving Sleaze Boy’s extra-ordinary-claims behavior (a.k.a in Urdu or Hindi; ChhooRo-pan.)
Are you thinking what the heck am I talking? Oh, below is a copy from Facebook (with my comments in red)
1. 
ALIGARH September 20: The President of India, in capacity of the Visitor of the Aligarh Muslim University has approved the creation of three new departments in the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College
The newly created departments are Department of Paediatric Surgery, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Department of Neurosurgery.
AMU Registrar, Group Captain (Retd.) Shahrukh Shamshad said that on the recommendation of the Academic Council and the Executive Council, the University Court had approved for creation of these departments of studies in the Faculty of Medicine and sent the proposal to Ministry of HRD for Visitor’s approval.
(This was a news from Indian press-media and AMU Press release. What is your contribution for which you are taking “congratulations for your contributions” from people who are unaware of facts? BTW: current AMU VC, Mr. Shah initiated the approval for these department from Indian government. Where do you fit in the scene, except posting the news then accepting compliments?)
Top of Form
o Tanvir Salim and 26 others like this.
o 
Syed Imad-ud-Din Asad Congratulations!!!
o ![clip_image002[1]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/-01dpj0igr0Y/UGb5YoiRWCI/AAAAAAAAB18/EX0U-zxfONw/clip_image002%25255B1%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800 "clip_image002[1]")
Syed Ali Rizvi Thanks
o 
Pratibha Shah Congrats!
o 
Lubna Kazim congratulations. wonderful progressive AMU
o 
Nusrat Haider awesome grt
o 
Pappu Khan Congratulations :)
September 21 at 9:10am via mobile · 1
o ![clip_image002[2]](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-ZStCQaMd_VI/UGb5az-B0kI/AAAAAAAAB2k/BoN7ENrCce8/clip_image002%25255B2%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800 "clip_image002[2]")
Syed Ali Rizvi Thanks everyone for your kind comments and appreciation.
o 
Kumkum Pareek Malik this is a landmark step for the university!
o ![clip_image002[3]](http://lh4.ggpht.com/-5rj2hlGzqPg/UGb5bh5PmfI/AAAAAAAAB20/59z2nMOKtdU/clip_image002%25255B3%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800 "clip_image002[3]")
Syed Ali Rizvi Thanks Kumkum Pareek Malik. I am particularly excited as I was a member of a global pool of alumni who wrote the report on these Centers. This report was accepted in totality by the AMU administration and implemented as such. A small step, but a long way to go.
o 
Meera Subramaniam Congratulations
o ![clip_image004[1]](http://lh4.ggpht.com/-0uCHNTLvoRw/UGb5cqE3mPI/AAAAAAAAB3E/feDHQ0F4siI/clip_image004%25255B1%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800 "clip_image004[1]")
Syed Imad-ud-Din Asad Ali Bhai, ya'ni is kaam main aap ka bhi haath tha :-) .... I first came to the States in 2006. Since then I have seen you constantly devote your time and energy to Aligarh's cause. Absolutely commendable!
o 
Manju Sheth Congrats
o ![clip_image002[4]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/-VSS5zn--UXM/UGb5d8p4RcI/AAAAAAAAB3U/6SJu4MKshXU/clip_image002%25255B4%25255D%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800 "clip_image002[4]")
Syed Ali Rizvi Thanks Meera Subramaniam, Syed Imad-ud-Din AsadManju Sheth for your words of appreciation and others for "liking. I have a deep passion for my alma mater and continue to do what I think will positively reinforce its name and fame and provide benefit to the thousands of students that come each year. I dedicate this shere, that I recently heard at our Mushaira to my alma mater..JahaN Rahega waheeN roshni Lutayega, Kisi chiraag ke apna makaaan nahiN hota..(The light of knowledge illuminates all minds without ANY bias.)
(What AMU Centers had to do with Medical College new departments addition and your role?)
Author: Suhaib Siddiqi
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Top 5 Things You Need to Know Before Marriage
When I look back now, I realize that there are just so many things no one told me about what it’s really like when the honeymoon is over. This article therefore has been written with the view that for all you starry-eyed matrimony-minded hopefuls out there – you have the right to know what to expect after marriage. So here are – in no particular order – the top 5 things that I wish someone had told me before marriage…
1. It’s a Pretty Quick Shift – and it Ain’t Always Pretty
You go from a time when you’re much at your best, together on romantic dates, wooing each other – to the sudden reality of actually living together. It’s not an easy transition. The mundane chores, the sharing of a bathroom, the regular ‘normal’ stuff that you go through each day, now in close quarters with another person – brings out sides of your new spouse that you didn’t know existed. Heck, it brings out sides of YOU that you didn’t know existed. It can be a pretty disturbing whirlwind of change, but being able to see it coming may perhaps help you deal with it better. By the way – in case you believe you’re immune to this because of your kind and compromising nature, congrats! (And also, ha ha).
2. It’s a Balancing Act – and a Setting Stage For Later Years
You may be the dominant, confident type. Your tendency is therefore to try and change the other person when there’s conflict. After all, you’re kind of – let’s say – perfect, right? Mama always told you so. To ensure a speedy resolution to the issues at hand, you therefore try and show your spouse the various errors of their ways and upbringing. For a while, it looks like it’s working! But be warned – these things come and bite you in unexpected places and at unexpected times. Being the bully doesn’t work for long. (Trust me, I know). Similarly, if you’re the more ‘peace-loving’ one, it’s easy to overdo the whole sacrifice gig – but what you’re really building is a foundation of resentment that is bound to boil over at some stage. The early days of your marriage are a critical time to try and find the right balance. The closer you can get to equal footing, the better – and this comes primarily from understanding yourself and staying away from the extremes of either being dominating or dominated. But in all likelihood – it is going to happen, to some extent.
3. You May Find Yourself Going Underground For a Bit
This is not only something that I’ve gone through personally but that I’ve observed in almost all my friends who pretty much disappear from their erstwhile social circles for a year or two after they get married. Probably due to the fact that you’re adjusting to your newly married state, you may end up losing touch with some of your friends for a while. The good news here – your more solid relationships endure (with some effort of course); and again, you can probably guard against a general tendency if you’re more conscious about it. And these days, thank heavens for Facebook too, at least you’ll be reminded to wish your best friends a ‘Happy Birthday’. An important thing to remember – it’s always worth making an extra effort to maintain those close friends. It’s not only that they were there first – it’s also good for you two to have that occasional break from each other. It’s the more healthy and sane thing to do, really.
4. Suddenly, it’s Not Just The Two of You Anymore
Sounds obvious, right? But this has nothing to do with whether you’re living in a joint set-up or far, far away from the parents. You’re now entering each other’s families, at the very least on an emotional level. The degree of this of course depends upon how closely-knit the involved families are, but the fact is that there are now likely to be multiple points of view on the same things. It’s unlikely to become the Saas-Bahu-Serial-kind-of-scenario, but the fact is the two different families that you’ve grown up in – no matter how ‘similar’ the backgrounds – are different living, breathing units with different belief systems, ways of operating and communicating and functioning -and in some cases, having arrived at their own unique dysfunctional equilibrium. The two of you have to manage your newly-emerging differences as individuals, but there may also be complexities caused by the newly-combined Family with a capital F. That’s okay. The key here is to remember that they all really do love you and that’s where the ‘Hume Kab Good News De Rahe Ho?’ comes from. Another key is to try and move to Australia, if you can. (A joke, but also not a bad idea). The real good news here is that after a while, you’ll grow into the newly-acquired Family and have more souls to love. Keeping that in mind may help a great deal.
5. Finally – This, too, Shall Pass
You’re on a journey of not just discovering another person in totality, but it’s also a journey of self-discovery. This means that the initial tumult includes the uncomfortable growing pains that accompany any learning experience. But time has a way of sorting things out, and the important thing is to remember that, grit your teeth and try and go with the flow as much as possible. Even if things aren’t always pleasant – chances are they will settle down into a far more comfortable relationship later.
- Contributed by Yashodhara Lal
(Yashodhara Lal is a graduate from IIM-Bangalore, with over a decade of marketing experience. She is also the author of the new book ‘Just Married, Please Excuse’. You can read sample chapters from the book on www.justmarriedpleaseexcuse.com. To visit her blog click here and you can find her on twitter too – @yashodharalal)
Monday, July 23, 2012
Misconceptions and prejudices about arranged marriages
January 4, 2011
I was watching a video by a very talented artist from Ninjabi.com the other day. It presented me with the usual argument: very traditional parents who want their daughter who has been born and raised in a Western country to accept an arranged marriage. All they’re concerned with is whether she will be provided for adequately. She on the other hand has no such wish. What was really interesting to watch was the style in which it was presented. All hand drawings. Very similar to the video I did for a Herpes Virus awareness campaign.
She added it on frame by frame and it worked really well. The only problem was that it did not add much to the information most people already have about arranged marriages. Granted, she is from a traditional family that is orthodox in its beliefs, but the same cannot be said for every Indian and every Pakistani on the planet. It greatly surprised a few people to listen to the interviews on the front page of the website because they didn’t realize some young Indians in Australia and around the world are quite happy to let their parents choose a partner for them. They’ve been brought up in and out of Indian communities around the world, they’ve grown up in the West, they’ve been educated in the West and given the opportunity to date. Yet they still want parental involvement when it comes to choosing a partner. This is also what intrigued me.
Growing up in the seventies, in Central America, I believe in self-determination. Completely, but when it comes to choosing a suitable partner, I’ve discovered that a pesky little thing called hormones gets in the way. It seems almost irrational to other cultures that we should allow such an important decision to be taken solely on the basis of feelings. This seems to be the reason why these young people are looking to tradition for stability and guidance. They don’t want to abdicate responsibility, rather they wish to share it with others who they believe have their best interests at heart.
It is also why they see matrimonial websites such as shaadiconnections.com as viable alternatives or hybrids of dating and arranged marriages.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
It's up to us to lift the blockade
June 2, 2010
The people of Gaza don't need the West to send humanitarian aid. They need our leaders to take decisive action – after all, we have been complicit in this siege, writes Donald Macintyre
In need of intervention: a Hamas supporter at a rally to remember the 1948 Catastrophe holds a key to represent houses that were left by Palestinians AFP
In need of intervention: a Hamas supporter at a rally to remember the 1948 Catastrophe holds a key to represent houses that were left by Palestinians
The bloody events which unfolded in the south-eastern corner of the Mediterranean sea in the early hours of Monday morning and their diplomatic aftermath are likely to dominate news from the Middle East, perhaps for some time to come. The question is whether their true meaning will be buried in the wholly essential but narrow debate on exactly how and why the carnage unfolded when Israel's naval commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara in international waters 75 miles off its coast. For beyond the issues of whether or not the killings were perpetrated in self defence, whether the pro-Palestinian activists were right to ignore the warnings issued by the Israeli military and steam ahead, or even who was or wasn't justified in international law, is an issue about which high-level denial in the past three years has been all-too easy.
Amid all the expressions of outrage at the killings one of the most telling was that issued by the International Crisis Group in the name of Robert Malley, the director of its Middle East Programme and a member of President Bill Clinton's team at the tragically abortive peace talks at Camp David in 2000. The assault on the flotilla was "but a symptom of an approach that has been implicitly endorsed by many", Malley said in a statement which charged that it was also an "indictment of a much broader policy toward Gaza for which Israel does not bear sole responsibility". Malley did not put it quite like this, but what he clearly had in mind was that the very same Western powers now wringing their hands have been complicit in a disastrous and counter-productive policy in Gaza itself over at least the past three years.
Perhaps too much of the argument about Gaza, on both sides, has used the word "humanitarian" as if the only question for the territory's 1.5m inhabitants is whether they do or not have the essentials for bare physical survival. For while there is deep and corrosive world-class poverty in many parts of Gaza, people are not dying in the streets from hunger. There are traffic jams in Gaza City; the grocery stores are relatively full, as much thanks to smuggled – and therefore expensive – goods from Egypt through the tunnels as to the hundreds of truckloads of supplies a week which are indeed admitted from Israel. Yet the real crisis developing in Gaza beneath this veneer of semi-normality is something much less visible than famine, and much more dangerous than the mystery of why Israel's opaque regime of permitted goods puts coriander but not cinnamon on its banned list. It is the gradual but systematic dismantling of a vital, historically well-educated, and in many respects self-reliant civilisation.
It is widely accepted internationally that the blockade is hurting the civilian population much more than Hamas, whose grip has tightened in the last three years. It has destroyed a once-entrepreneurial and productive economy, ensured that 80 per cent of its population now depend on food aid, left most of its water undrinkable, and prevented reconstruction of some 75 per cent of the buildings destroyed by Israel's devastating military offensive in the winter of 2008-9, not to mention many, many thousands more destroyed since the beginning of the intifada in 2000; or the building of 100 new schools the UN refugee agency Unrwa desperately needs to meet its ever-soaring demands. It's because world leaders understand this – at least on a theoretical basis since few ever enter Gaza – that the Quartet of the US, EU, Russia and the UN has repeatedly called for the siege to be lifted.
Video: Flotilla activists deported
The results are unimpressive. Take the single example of cement. After nine months of negotiation Israel agreed to imports for a very limited number of internationally supervised infrastructure projects and to finish a derisory 150 houses in Khan Yunis that had been 85 per cent completed before the 2008-9 war. A consequence is that the UN, which is wholly dependent on Israel since it cannot patronise the "tunnels economy", looks increasingly weak compared with the de facto Hamas government, which faces no such constraints. Similarly the bona fide private sector entrepreneurs – most have long had the Israeli security clearance which gave them the freedom to travel freely across the border in better times and sometimes still does – have lost out to a tunnels-based black economy controlled by Hamas and its handpicked middlemen, the new businessmen of Gaza.
While Israel says it cannot allow more cement in case Hamas seizes it for military bunkers, its clear the de facto government already has, thanks to the tunnels, all the cement it needs. It has, for example, just announced a plan to build 1,000 new homes in Jabalya. As every Western diplomat knows, the vast majority of tunnels exist solely because of the blockade. If the blockade was lifted, the authority of the international community's institutions would increase. Yet this has done nothing to shift the paralysis of the western powers in the face of Israel's opposition to easing the blockade.
If ever there was an opportunity to reverse that dismal record it is now, at the very moment when there should be the keenest focus on whether the policy which led up to Monday's bloody climax can finally be changed. Which is why for all its messy mixture of political motives and the bloody finale in which the flotilla was halted, there may actually be lessons from this bleak story for the international community in how to close the increasingly embarrassing gap between its stated policy and the reality.
Ideally Israel would now rethink a policy which there is every reason for thinking is not only catastrophic for Gaza's people, but also not in its own long-term interests. But if not, there may be ways in which the international community can shake off its passivity in the face of this unfolding tragedy. For if broadly friendly governments – preferably within the Quartet but if not outside it – were to confront Israel with the prospect of mounting their own, much more official and internationally sanctioned official maritime relief operation, it would be exponentially more difficult for the Netanyhau government to see it off than it has, however messily and lethally, this week's flotilla.
Implausible as it may seem at first sight, the idea has been discussed at a high level in international diplomatic circles. The only senior UN figure brave enough to float the idea publicly, however, is Unrwa's Gaza director of operations, John Ging, who mentioned sea access when he argued in an interview more than a month before Monday's fiasco, that it was time for the international community "physically" to do something about "rescuing" Gaza. While the Israeli claim that an unchecked activist flotilla entering Gaza compromises its security may be understandable, it could hardly say the same about allied or UN ships.
A seaborne operation would also get round an Israeli security objection to reopening the big cargo land crossing at Karni – the perceived vulnerability of Israeli drivers and security personnel to Palestinian attack. And if Hamas seized the unloaded cargo, as it has not done in the case of limited shipments made for infrastructure projects, the operation could cease immediately. Of course it should be co-ordinated with Israel, which after all is already repeatedly making the point that it was prepared to take the goods brought by the flotilla into Gaza once they had been checked. It is a matter of conjecture whether Israel could be persuaded to offer such co-ordination without a clear threat to go ahead without it. But it is hard to imagine it would use force to stop the ships of a friendly state. And yet, up to this week, the idea was at risk of going into deep freeze, partly because of Israel's resistance.
Unless Monday marks a turning point that will see the reversal of Israel's blockade, as it certainly should, the relief idea should now be speedily revived. After all, the three dominant values which have permeated Western thinking over the last half century have been enterprise, freedom and democracy. Each one is violated on a daily basis in Gaza by the international community's failure to act on its own regular calls for a lifting of the blockade.
Enterprise? It is difficult to see how the collapse of hundreds of companies, mostly owned by people with no love for Hamas, and many enjoying close relationship with Israeli customers, helped Israeli security. Let alone the consequential drift of the unemployed into jobs with Hamas, including its armed paramilitary wings. And that's before mentioning agriculture or fishing. To take a single example, if security is the reason for the one-mile fishing limit, why were Gaza fishermen allowed to travel 12 miles offshore at the peak of the intifada in 2002?
Freedom? The trapping of civilians in Gaza was not only an outrage in the 2008-9 offensive, when it prevented them leaving the war zone as they would have done in almost any other part of the world. It is also – to take a single example – keeping thousands of young students, a generation ambitious to help their homeland, from the postgraduate education they crave in the pluralistic world of foreign, Israeli, and even West Bank universities.
Democracy? Are Gazans still being punished for voting for Hamas in 2006 in clearly free and fair elections? But in the West Bank – now favoured by a real, if still precarious, increase in economic growth – a majority also voted for Hamas. Nor can the Gazan public as a whole remotely be blamed for the armed seizure of Gaza by Hamas after the brief but bloody civil war with Fatah which broke the coalition between the factions – the very seizure which was the trigger for the blockade. Any more than it can be for the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit four years ago.
And if Gazans would now prefer the leadership of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank – as they might – there is nothing they can do about it while Hamas has the guns and control of the streets (a control which paradoxically is currently maintaining a de facto, if far-from perfect, ceasefire with Israel). The idea that that a civilian population can somehow achieve what an armed and partially US-backed Fatah failed to do in June 2007 and topple Hamas is fantasy.
This week could and should indeed mark a turning point in which Israel will be urged to ease the blockade of Gaza. What is needed is not principally more "humanitarian" goods but a real opening of borders to the commercial imports and exports that can revive Gaza's stricken economy – and hopes – once again and begin to reconstruct its war ravaged infrastructure, as the international community pledged an almost wholly unspent $5bn to do after the 2008-9 war.
And if Israel persists in the face of such urgings to maintain the blockade, it will be hard to escape the conclusion that it is comfortable with a policy which threatens to nurture groups more extreme than Hamas as no more than a useful example of what happens when it "abandons" territory (which in terms of control of its borders, airspace, and as we were painfully reminded this week, its coastal waters, it never really did when Ariel Sharon pulled the settlers out in 2005).
But blaming Israel – and Egypt, which repeatedly enforces closures on Gaza's southern border – for the blockade is too easy. For just as the international ban on talking to Hamas isolated its more pragmatic elements, so the West's tolerance of the siege has strengthened the Islamic faction's more repressive ones, turning Gaza in on itself. A lawful naval relief operation – or even a threat of it that might produce a real easing of what the UN sees as an unlawful blockade – might help to restore international influence over a territory which remains crucial to any settlement in the Middle East. And it would certainly would go a long way to redeeming the West's woeful inaction over the last three years.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Odds Of Cooking The Grandkids
By Stuart Staniford
There is a horrible paper in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (hat-tip Desdemona Despair), which looks at how the limits of human physiology interact with upper-range global warming scenarios. The bottom line conclusion is that there is a small - of order 5% - risk of global warming creating a situation in which a large fraction of the planet was uninhabitable (in the sense that if you were outside for an extended period during the hottest days of the year, even in the shade with wet clothing, you would die). To give you a feeling for the likely uninhabitable regions, it's the portions of the map above that are in the white or pink/purple color (above 35oC wet bulb temperature on the scale). As you can see, it includes most of the eastern US, much of inland Brazil and Latin America, tropical Africa, pretty much all of India, portions of northern China, and most of Australia. Plenty to qualify as a "Risk to Global Civilization", I think.
The paper itself will cost you $10 to read, unless you are already a PNAS subscriber, so let me try to summarize the main reasoning and you can decide if it's worth your $10.
The first thing we need to understand is this concept of wet bulb temperature. The basic idea is that you take a regular mercury-in-glass type thermometer, cover the bulb in wet gauze, run a fan on it, and measure the resulting temperature. Because evaporation cools things (the reason we sweat when we are hot) this temperature will tend to be lower than the normal dry bulb temperature. How much lower depends on the humidity of the air - in dry places (eg deserts) evaporative cooling does you a lot of good. But in places where the relative humidity is high - like the eastern US in summer - it does you less good and the wet bulb temperature is close to the dry bulb temperature. So the first interesting thing we can take from the paper is the following map of the distribution of web bulb temperatures currently:
More precisely, the wet bulb temperature being plotted here is the average annual high that extended for at least six hours, and the data is for 1999-2008. So the filthy-hottest parts of the planet become clear - the tropics of course, with the inland Amazon and northern India worst, but the eastern US is not far behind, as also northern China and much of Australia.
So how high a wet bulb temperature can people tolerate? The paper doesn't cite much experimental data (apparently the Nazi scientists missed this in their program) but what is known is that skin temperatures above 35oC (which is 95oF) are fatal for an extended period (your skin needs to be at least a few degrees cooler than your core temperature of 37oC/98oF so that heat can be conducted from the blood to the skin in order to shed metabolic heat). So it's reasonable that if the wet bulb temperature is above this for an extended period (they take six hours) you won't be able to survive. In fact, given that a human who needs to be outside probably won't be sitting in the shade with wet clothes and a big fan, the maximum survivable wet bulb temperature may actually be a degree or two lower.
At the moment, as the map above shows, nowhere on the planet gets up that high. The highest is in the low thirties - pretty damn unpleasant, no doubt, and no-one is going to do a whole lot outside under those conditions, but not actually fatal for all but a small minority of folks (probably with other health conditions).
The next thing to understand is that the distribution of uncertainty for the climate sensitivity has a long tail on the high side. The climate sensitivity, recall, is how much hotter the planet will get due to a doubling of CO2. It's not known terribly precisely. A 2007 paper in Science, Roe and Baker, made a pretty persuasive argument that the uncertainty is always going to tend to have a long tail to the high side (at least until after we've run the experiment). This figure from that paper shows various different ways of estimating the probability distribution, and shows they all have a similar form:
You can see that, even though the most likely climate sensitivity is around 3oC there's an appreciable amount of probability for sensitivities above 6oC (which is about 10oF). Maybe 5-10% depending on which probability distribution. Hard to be super-precise, but at any rate, noticeably higher than, say, your lifetime risk of dying in a car crash (1 in 83 for Americans, according to this article).
So, then, if we look at emissions, here's the main IPCC scenarios:
Right now, we are tracking above the red curve worst case. So, if we live in a don't-do-much-about-climate-change world (which I hope and pray we don't really live in, it just looks that way right now) then we could get to about two doublings by the end of the century (over pre-industrial levels of 280ppm of CO2). Thus that motivates looking at 12oC of warming as a sort of worst-reasonably-feasible case. Since there are lags in the climate system, that wouldn't actually be reached in 2100, but maybe a few decades after (but it would be committed by 2100). So we come back to the map at the start:
This is the paper's estimate of the annual peak six hour wet bulb temperature in a 12oC hotter world. As you can see, most of the world's major population centers will be uninhabitable outdoors during heat waves (again, you want to look at the places over about 35oC). We will have to retreat to places like Scandinavia (which will feel as hot as tropical Africa today) and northern Canada, or just skulk inside with lots of air conditioning. But in that scenario, I think all bets are off for global civilization as I expect people in the poorer countries in the developing world will basically all flee, and who knows what the effect of that would be.
About author Stuart Staniford:
I'm a scientist and innovator in the technology industry, with a broad range of interests and experiences. I have a Physics PhD, MS in CS, and have done research, lived in cohousing communities, run a business, and designed technology products. Professionally, I mainly work on computer security problems and am currently Chief Scientist at FireEye, but this is my personal blog for pro-bono research
Original article available here
Genetically Modified
By Layla Anwar
07 May, 2010
Arab Woman Blues
Some years ago, I knew a Western woman...she was was not exactly a friend, more like an acquaintance, a friend of a good friend of mine. Anyways, this woman I will call her Marion, was newly wed and she and her husband were very much looking forward to having a baby.
When Marion got pregnant, after careful planning, because Westerners love to plan everything right down to the last cent -- she had all the medical care she needed. Tests, ultrasounds and the rest....and during her 4th month of pregnancy she underwent the usual exam to determine that her baby was a healthy fetus.
Marion was devastated when her doctor informed her that her baby had some genetic deformity and she had to undergo an abortion. Marion then lapsed into a severe depression despite the fact that her doctor assured her that she can still have healthy babies in the future, she'd panic at the thought of getting pregnant again and her marital relation suffered a severe blow which ended up in a divorce...
During her grieving period, her friends and family showed her the utmost support...everyone sympathized with her losing a 4 month old fetus, empathy overflowed, so did the pampering, and the endless sessions with specialized psychiatrists who tried their best to help Marion overcome her grief...
It was a big deal...very big deal...how could nature deal such a fate to Marion - everyone wondered...and I saw heads shake in disbelief at this cruelty...and heard the exclamations of horrified indignation, for one pregnancy gone awry.
I felt - well yes it is sad, but it is not the end of the world. She's lucky she found out in mid pregnancy instead of waiting till delivery and she's still young and in good health, she has access to medical services, she lives in a healthy environment, she has a good diet, she has support, and she can get pregnant again...
The fuss was overdone in my opinion...but then Westerners care so much about life, healthy babies, healthy families, and their absolute right to have all of the above in the best conditions possible...
Years passed, I don't know what happened to spoiled Marion, maybe she conceived again, maybe she's still getting over the fact that she had to terminate a pregnancy because of some nature's mishap...but what I do know on the other hand -- is that thousands of Iraqi mothers are being asked not to get pregnant at all...
The latest I heard and it is unofficial, is that in Basra, doctors are advising women not to get pregnant for the next 25 years. Basra being an enclave of the shiite government, no one dares publicly announce that. It just circulates in secret among the newly wed...
In Falluja on the other hand, it is official --women are publicly advised not to have any babies, no number of years are indicated -- it is assumed for a long, long time...
The reason for this pregnancy dissuasion stems from the fact that the West who cares so much about its own little infants, had absolutely no qualms into pouring tons of lethal chemicals as in Weapons of Mass Destruction over the people of Basra and Falluja --to name but a few...chemical weapons like depleted uranium and phosphorus which caused cancer rates to soar among children and which produced the most ugly looking monsters -- genetically modified by "freedom and democracy"...
The mothers of Falluja and Basra don't have the luxury of some Marion...and their little Frankensteins are not a product of some odd nature's mishap.. no. Their little ones have been planned and conceived in Washington DC and 10 Downing Street. Their are the fruit of the West. The West's labor...and our pangs.
No one will fuss over the Iraqi mothers, nor will they receive the satin gloved support and empathy like Marion did...they will just lie in that delivery room, assuming there is one...and expel one monster after another...made in America and Great Britain.
But you see there is one thing that probably escapes you...these monstrous infants, these deformed babies -- not of nature but of your "civilization" -- are only a reflection of you own ugliness...in themselves these infants are beautiful...and in yourselves, you are just plain hideous.
Additional Reading: : British army to be sued for War Crimes.
Picture: Iraqi infants from Falluja -- courtesy of America and "Great" Britain.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Obama Jokes About Killing Jonas Brothers With Predator Drones
By Alex Pareene
04 May, 2010
Salon.com
Obama threatens Jonas Brothers with drone strikes
At this weekend's Washington Formal Prom, President Barack Obama told this joke: "The Jonas Brothers are here; they're out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans. But boys, don't get any ideas. I have two words for you, 'predator drones.' You will never see it coming."
Hah! It's funny because predator drone strikes in Pakistan have killed literally hundreds of completely innocent civilians, and now the president is evincing a casual disregard for those lives he is responsible for ending by making a lighthearted joke about killing famous young celebrities for the crime of attempting to sleep with his young daughters. (Really, everything about the joke is inappropriate. That's why you shouldn't analyze humor too much.)
But the problem isn't specifically with the joke itself. It's a sort of generic joke about the executive's unconstrained power that any postwar president could've delivered. You know, it would've been Patriot missiles during the first Gulf War, or jokes about the CIA or Secret Service disappearing people during the Cold War. The problem is with the whole damn scene of the president delivering a stand-up comedy routine, on camera, to the press. The problem with the Bush joke about looking for WMD was that a roomful of journalists chuckled good-naturedly at it. It looks bad for everyone.
The joke mighta worked, and certainly would've been less offensive, coming from anyone else. It seems like a no-brainer that the people directly responsible for tragedies should not deliver jokes about those tragedies. That's why Mel Brooks can tell Hitler jokes and Germans can't.
But! The concept of the president personally ordering the assassination of the Jonas Brothers is, you have to admit, kind of funny. Such a terrible act would also neatly drive home the problem with drone strikes and the Presidential Assassination Program in a way that Americans and the popular press would really grasp.
Saffron Brigade Disturbs Chhattisgarh Peace March
By Nachiketa Desai
05 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
A mob of about 100 slogan shouting supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party barged into the public meeting of eminent citizens, including space scientist Yash Pal, veteran Gandhian Narayan Desai and former UGC chairman Ramji Singh, a day before they embarked upon a peace march from Raipur to Dantewada in Chhattisgarh.
A group of over 50 leading citizens had converged in Raipur on May 5 to take out what they call 'March for dialogue on peace and justice', calling for end to a civil-war like situation in the predominantly tribal state of Chhattisgarh. These citizens comprising academics, scientists, social activists and Gandhian workers, want a 'ceasefire' between the state forces and Maoists to begin a nation-wide discussion on model of development that the country should follow to ensure a sustainable, just and people-oriented economy and polity.
At a press conference, held before the public meeting, Prof Yash Pal said he was greatly pained at the plight of the tribals, farmers and the indigenous people in the last 60 years of Independence for which the powers that be and the middle-class in general were responsible. "Do we want to annihilate the entire race of aboriginal people, like America had done in the name of development?" he asked.
Interestingly, the Press Club of Raipur allowed to hold the press conference of the leading citizens as an exception to their earlier resolution not to allow any press conference of human rights activists. The press conference lasted for more than an hour during which journalists asked leading questions like 'How can you advocate ceasefire when Naxalites are out to wage a war against the constitutionally-formed government?"
Swami Agnivesh, Prof Yash Pal and Narayan Desai explained the limited scope of the peace march saying the foremost thing was to stop violence from both the sides - from the state and the Left extremists - to facilitate a nation-wide dialogue on ways and means to have a sustainable and just development of the country in which people were at the centre.
Later, while the marchers held a public meeting at the town hall, near the district collector's office, a mob of over 100 people, stormed into the hall shouting slogans, "Naxal sympathisers go back", "Naxal sympathisers, shame, shame." The trouble-makers disrupted the meeting several times during which the speakers stopped addressing the gathering.
State director general of police Vishwa Ranjan said the trouble-makers belonged to both the BJP and the Congress party. "Tempers are running high in Chhattisgarh over the wanton killings of tribals by the Maoists. Anyone advocating dialogue with them is perceived as the sympathiser of the Maoists," he added. The top cop directed concerned police offers of Jagdalpur and Dantewada to provide adequate security to the peace marchers.
New York Car Bomb Incident: Another False Flag?
By Stephen Lendman
05 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
On May 1, New York Times writers Al Baker and William Rashbaum headlined, "Police Find Car Bomb in Times Square," saying:
"A crude car bomb of propane, gasoline and fireworks was discovered in a 'smoking' Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square on Saturday evening, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers on a warm and busy night."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg claimed "We were very lucky. We avoided what could have been a very deadly event."
For much of the evening, Midtown New York, from 43rd - 48th streets, was closed, heightening fear reported for hours on cable news shows, including statements by Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, saying the bomb "appeared (to be) in the process of detonating, but it malfunctioned."
Good luck or something else? We've seen this too often not to be suspicious. This one, like others, has all the earmarks of a false flag, more likely given its coverage and location in Times Square on Saturday night, followed by a May 2 video saying the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.
Who could imagine they had a branch office in New York, and no one even noticed. At least that's the impression from media disinformation, hyped to spread fear and prepare the public for what's to come, perhaps something much worse.
In addition, like previous times, a suspect is already in custody, a Muslim, of course, as part of the anti-Islamic post-9/11 rage, and given how abusively he may be treated (including frightening threats of life in prison or the death penalty), perhaps will confess to anything or make it appear that he did so headlines can blare it.
According to Reuters, a statement on an Islamic web site (http://www.muslm.net/vb/showthread.php?t=387309) said:
"The Pakistani Taliban announces its responsibility for the New York attack in revenge for the two leaders al-Baghdadi and al-Muhajir and Muslim martyrs."
Videos are easy to fake, including strategically timed bin Laden ones, exposed by digital experts as fakes, aside from convincing evidence he died in 2001.
See David Ray Griffin's important book titled, "Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive?" In his latest April 30 article, "Did Osama Bin Laden Confess to the 9/11 Attacks, and Did He Die in 2001," Griffin notes his book's convincing evidence of his death, that if so, proves all subsequent video and audio tapes attributed to him are fakes.
According to Hactor Factor's Neal Krawetz, bogus ones are characterized by low quality visual and audio splices and more. His analysis of a September 2007 video showed bin Laden's beard black when in earlier images it's gray. It also had him dressed in a white hat, shirt and yellow sweater, precisely the same attire as in October 2004. In addition, the background, lighting, desk and camera angle were the same.
Most obvious were the edits, showing obvious splices, at least six video ones and even more for audio that appeared to be words and phrases spliced together.
Videos like these are easy to make as are special effects clever enough to make anyone look like bin Laden, convincingly enough to fool the public, especially when media reports hype them.
Post-9/11, it's vital to remind the public by strategically timed "Enemy Number One" bin Laden incidents and the "security threat" he represents. If he didn't exist, he'd have to be invented so why not perpetuate the myth, omitting that he was a CIA asset and likely remained one until his death.
Noteworthy is that CBS News anchor Dan Rather reported that he was admitted to a Rawalpindi, Pakistan hospital on September 10, 2001, and France's Le Figaro said:
"Dubai....was the backdrop of a secret meeting between Osama bin Laden and the local CIA agent in July (2001). A partner of the administration of the American Hospital....claims that (bin Laden) stayed (there) between the 4th and 14th of July (and) received visits from many members of his family as well as prominent Saudis and Emiratis. (During the same period), the local CIA agent, known to many in Dubai, was seen taking (the hospital's) main elevator (to) bin Laden's room." Why not if he was a valued asset.
On May 2, the Israeli news website Debka.com featured an "Exclusive Report" saying:
"On April 30, twenty-four hours before a smoking SUV Nissan containing an improvised bomb was defused (in) Times Square....the Pakistani Taliban's top bomb-maker, Qari Hussain Mehsud, took 'full responsibility for the recent attack in the USA' in an audiotape with images on a You Tube website."
Saying no proof of overseas involvement was forensically found, "DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources" noted similarities between the New York bomb and earlier 2005 and 2007 ones in London and Glasgow, Scotland respectively. In each case, they used propane and failed to detonate - the Glasgow one, in fact, causing the car used to burn but not cause a major catastrophe.
DEBKA also quoted Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud saying on an April 4 nine minute tape that "The time is very near when our fedayeen will attack the American states in the major cities." Earlier, Qari Hussein Mehsud "warned NATO governments to denounce the US and apologize for the 'massacres in Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Pakistani tribal areas - otherwise be prepared for the worst destruction and devastation in their own countries.' "
A mid-April Debka report had Iran threatening to retaliate against US cities with nuclear weapons if they're used against Iranian cities or sites.
"For the first time, DEBKAfile's military sources (IDF and/or Mossad ones stoking fear) report, Tehran indicated the possibility of passing nuclear devices to terrorists capable of striking inside the United States....Although Iran has yet to attain operational nuclear arms, our military sources believe it does possess the makings of primitive nuclear devices or 'dirty bombs.' "
With no supportive evidence, these type reports hype fear to prepare the public for what's to come, so if a planned major terrorist event in a Western city, there's a ready suspect to blame and popular approval to act.
Noted Previous False Flags
The historic record is full of false flags, some especially noteworthy. Below are a few examples:
-- in 1898, America falsely accused Spain of blowing up the USS Maine in Havana, Cuba harbor. The Spanish-American war followed;
-- in 1933 Germany, a week before general elections, the strategically timed Reichstag fire (home of the German parliament) was blamed on communists. It got President Paul von Hindenburg to sign an emergency decree. Civil liberties were suspended. Weimar Republic democracy ended, and Hitler assumed fascist powers after enough Nazis were elected to assure it;
-- on August 31, 1939, Nazis impersonating Polish terrorists attacked the Gleiwitz radio station on the border between the two countries, starting WW II;
-- on December 7, 1941, the Roosevelt administration succeeded in manipulating Japan to attack Pearl Harbor, giving FDR the war he wanted from the early 1930s, but had to convince a pacifist public of the threat; the fleet was also tracked across the Pacific, but Admiral HE Kimmel wasn't warned or given known intelligence to assure enough mass casualties for congressional and public support;
-- in 1962, a US Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed false flag attack never happened because President Jack Kennedy rejected it; called Operation Northwoods (a part of Operation Mongoose), the scheme included sinking US ships, shooting down US commercial airliners, blowing up buildings in US cities, attacking America's Guantanamo base, other incidents, and blaming it on Cuba as a reason for war;
-- the fake August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident initiating full-scale retaliation against North Vietnam after Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing war without declaring it; and the seminal event of our time -
-- September 11, 2001, clear evidence showing it was a false flag, the Afghan and Iraq wars made possible by fear-mongering blame on the Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
On February 16, 2010, a Washington's blog web site (georgewashington2.blogspot.com) article titled, "Governments ADMIT That They Carry Out False Flag Terror" listed some examples, including:
-- the CIA admitting its 1950s role in toppling Iran's democratically government in 1953;
-- Israel admitting a 1954 attack in Egypt, including planting bombs in US diplomatic facilities, leaving "evidence" of Arab involvement;
-- Indonesia's former president, Abdurrahman Wahid, saying the nation's police or military most likely were involved in the 2002 Bali bombing, killing over 200 people;
-- a former Italian prime minister, judge, and military counterintelligence head, General Gianadelio Maletti, saying America's CIA instigated and abetted right wing terrorist groups in the 1970s and earlier, including bombing a Milan bank in 1969, to rally popular anti-communist support in Italy and other European countries; and
-- many others, including former Carter administration National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, telling a Senate committee that a false flag terror attack on US soil might occur to blame Iran and justify war.
In his 1997 book, "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives," he said:
"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat," the kind 9/11 created - predicted, planned, orchestrated, and carried out to further new world order dominance globally.
Other False Flag Examples
(1) The March 2004 Madrid train bombings occurred three days before Spain's general elections. With no supportive evidence, they were blamed on Al Qaeda, yet they stoked public fear and were used to warn that other Western cities were threatened, including in America.
Nearly always, Muslims are blamed and arrested, the DEBKAfile citing advance bin Laden tapes threatening to punish Spain for supporting the Bush administration. This time, Basque separatists were also named, again without evidence, and the bin Laden tapes were fakes.
(2) The July 7, 2005 London underground bombings (called 7/7) were a series of attacks on the city's public transport system during the morning rush hour for maximum disruption and casualties. At precisely the same time, an anti-terror drill occurred, simulating real attacks. It was no coincidence this time or ever, others in America and Britain coming on the same day as a real event, other notable ones covered below.
AP reported that the London Israeli embassy warned Scotland Yard about the 7/7 one in advance, and Israeli Army Radio reported that "Scotland Yard had intelligence warnings of the attacks a short time before they occurred," but didn't act or issue warnings. In addition, Israel's finance minister at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, was told not to attend an economic conference in the city where he was scheduled to deliver an address.
Other dignitaries were also warned, but not the public. Even without smoking gun proof, the 7/7 attack was a false flag operation to heighten fear and keep Britain and the West embroiled in war.
(3) On the morning of the 9/11 attack, the CIA ran a "pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building." Held at the Agency's Chantilly, Virginia Reconnaissance Office, AP reported (on August 22, 2002) that it simulated "a small corporate jet (hitting) one of the four towers....after experiencing a mechanical failure."
Unmentioned at the time was a later revealed (but unreported) Homeland Security conference announcement a year later to commemorate the 9/11 event. Held under the auspices of the National Law Enforcement and Security Institute, one of its speakers was John Fulton, CIA Chief of the Strategic War Gaming Division of the National Reconnaissance office in charge of the operation. Another coincidence, or was something more sinister afoot?
The previous year in October, the Pentagon simulated a commercial plane striking the Pentagon, coordinated by its Command Emergency Response Team and the Defense Protective Services Police. This and the 9/11 exercises are more than coincidental, given what's now known and the fallout.
(4) On June 30, 2007, a Jeep Cherokee with propane canisters crashed into Glasgow International Airport's glass doors, the BBC reporting that it "was in the middle of the doorway burning....The car didn't actually explode. There were a few pops and bangs which presumably was the petrol."
The usual suspects were blamed, Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorists, Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying:
"We are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with Al Qaeda," followed by his initiating draconian security measures, hyped by the UK Telegraph saying:
An "unknown Al Qaeda terrorist cell (was) thought to be preparing to launch a series of Baghdad-style car bombings." Another Telegraph article mentioned Washington's involvement with UK authorities in hyping the threat, and an ABC News report suggested foreknowledge of the incident based on advance warnings (by unnamed intelligence officials) of Al Qaeda "target(ing) nightclubs and other soft targets....All of this comes just three weeks after what was described as an Al Qaeda graduation ceremony for suicide bombers at a training camp in Pakistan."
Fear mongering and false flags? Draw your own conclusions, understanding the need to stoke fear to keep public support for the "war on terror," the loss of civil liberties for "security," the Afghan and Iraq wars, and whatever else may be planned.
(5) the Christmas 2009 airliner incident involving Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen on an Amsterdam - Detroit bound flight. US officials claimed he was trained in Yemen by Al Qaeda, obtained explosive chemicals (PETN), and tried to detonate them on board.
In a December 29 Russia Today interview, Webster Tarpley called him a "protected (CIA) patsy (for a) provocation designed to facilitate US meddling in (Yemen's) civil war (pitting) the Saudi-backed central government against the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels," being bombed by US and Saudi air strikes.
Abdulmutallab was denied a UK entrance visa, wasn't on a No Fly List, paid cash for a one-way ticket to Detroit, checked no luggage, had a US visa but no passport, and was helped on board by a "well-dressed Indian" to facilitate the likely false flag plot using him as a convenient dupe.
The Wayne Madsen Report called the incident a false flag operation "carried out by (the) intelligence tripartite grouping of CIA, Mossad, and India's Research Analysis Wing (RAW)." Earlier they conspired with "former Afghan KHAD intelligence agents to assassinate former Pakistani Prime Minister Benezir Bhutto....to destabilize Pakistan" for planned balkanization, the same scheme planned for Afghanistan and already implemented in Iraq.
Madsen explained that Abdulmutallab's PETN was "weak, technically deficient," failed to go off properly, and if so would have had the impact of an exploding fire cracker.
Madsen also reported that the same tripartite CIA, Mossad, and RAW alliance was behind the November 2008 Mumbai, India attacks, killing nearly 200 and wounding hundreds more. Webster Tarpley said almost for certain Pakistan's ISI radical wing was involved, and that Indian and Mossad operatives conduct regular cross-border missions into Pakistan from India and Afghanistan.
(6) Make of it what you will, but in Miami on January 11, 2010 (one day before Haiti's earthquake), the Pentagon's US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) simulated a hurricane striking Haiti in preparation for subsequent measures to be implemented, that, in fact, would be a carefully planned military operation for occupation, control, and planned plunder.
Also, Deputy SOUTHCOM head, General PK Keen, was in Haiti when the quake struck, ready to assume command when it did and use a communication tool called the Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project (TISC), linking other nations and NGOs with the Pentagon and US government to facilitate measures to be implemented, none to help Haitians.
Final Comments
As long as imperial ambitions and rogue agencies like CIA and their foreign counterparts exist, false flag operations will be commonplace, the May 1 New York one the latest example, and maybe a forerunner of what's to come - another 9/11 some believe, far worse than the first one, perhaps involving a nuclear incident in a US city. Then using it as a pretext for more war and to divert attention from America's deepening economic crisis, likely to erupt in protests because of Washington's indifference to millions affected.
Whether or not the direst predictions occur will only be known in the fullness of time. In the meantime, stay tuned for more updates as events unfold, and be prepared for the worst.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
posted by Steve Lendman @ 3:03 AM
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Soldier Committed Violence Against Palestinian Detainees
Soldier Committed Violence and Abuse Against Palestinian Detainees - by Stephen Lendman
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PACTI - stoptorture.org) calls "torture and ill treatment of any kind....incompatible with" moral democratic values. It "advocates for all persons" in Israel and Occupied Palestine to protect them from abusive treatment of all kinds.
In June 2008, its report titled, "No Defense: Soldier Violence against Palestinian Detainees" is just as relevant today, perhaps more so given Israel's intensified violence and abuse in Gaza and the West Bank in the past year.
PACTI interviewed detainees and participating soldiers, included media reports, IDF provided information, and comments of political figures regarding these practices.
Observed was a phenomenon dating back decades, and, of course, remains ongoing today. Hence, the report's relevance and need to discuss it. Especially since September 2000 (the beginning of the second Intifada), "the number of arrests has been unprecedented. Thousands of Palestinians are arrested each year....and are executed by a large number of combat units in the Israeli military."
Violent arrests followed by torture and ill treatment are commonplace. For decades, Israeli soldiers have abused Palestinian detainees "on a routine basis." Recognizing and exposing it is key to stopping it.
Ill Treatment in Arrests
Force is routinely used even for those posing no threat. It begins during and after arrests, in transit, and at military bases and installations, prior to being transfered to a detention facility.
Detainees are beaten, blindfolded, and painfully shackled for hours, a practice often causing permanent injury. In response to PACTI requests, an IDF spokesperson cited no regulations, guidelines, procedures, or orders relating to the process. Order 9810, not applicable to all arrest stages, merely says:
"only metal shackles are to be used (and) tightening (them) should be undertaken in such a manner as to prevent injury to the detainee (particularly to blood vessels)."
As a result, abuses occur routinely, including violence and threats. Typical are severe beatings while shackled and blindfolded, enough to cause serious injuries. They begin at arrest and continue during transport with detainees forced to sit, lie, or be thrown on vehicle floors.
Soldiers commonly put their feet on detainee bodies and/or heads, creating enough friction to cause abrasions and injuries. Commanders are there to observe it.
Before imprisonment, detainees are often held in makeshift detention facilities on military bases where abuse continues. One prisoner said he was taken to a concrete yard, handcuffed to a concrete pole, made to sit on the ground, and be beaten on the face every 30 or 60 minutes.
Abuse, ill treatment, and humiliation continue through each stage of the process. For Nidal Shataya, it was especially egregious as he explained:
"....After the soldiers searched the house and the entire building, they arrested me and my brothers....They put us into a military jeep using force and violence and shoves. They shouted at us and cursed us....They put us on the floor of the jeep, handcuffed and blindfolded. (They) were taking us to Hawara base to the south of Nablus, where we were interrogated by Intelligence officers....The soldiers beat us while we were waiting in the outer yard. Every soldier that walked past would beat and curse us. We were not allowed to lean or to sleep.
At the Hawara military checkpoint....they put us on the floor in a small, dirty room next to the checkpoint. The soldiers handcuffed us very tightly and blindfolded us. My hands and eyes hurt a lot and we could not...stand this situation any longer....
Then the soldiers came and started to beat us with their army boots and their weapons. The beatings were repeated three times," at first for about 15 minutes, the second the same time, and the third for over 10 minutes, "continuously and without any interruption....Then the Israeli soldiers dragged and pulled us along the road to the other side of the checkpoint....and threw us on the road there. There were taxi drivers there who called for an ambulance and they took us to the hospital, almost unconscious...."
Use of Dogs
After September 2000, their use increased - at checkpoints, on military bases, and accompanying soldiers, especially during arrests. According to one soldier:
"Today, the dogs in the unit are trained for one of five capabilities: Assault, identification of explosives, scouting, weapons and ammunitions searches, or rescue and release."
PACTI attorney Yaara Kalmanovich wrote Israel's Judge Advocate General saying:
"The....graver aspect is the phenomenon of deliberate ill treatment with the means of dogs. These cases....are shocking and they must be quickly and effectively eliminated. (In addition), the mere contact with the dogs may be terrifying and humiliating. According to Islam, the dog is an impure animal, and accordingly many Muslims feel humiliated and dishonored whenever a dog is close to their person or touches them....The soldiers should be required to keep the dogs in such a manner that they will not come into contact with the detainees whenever there is no tangible operational need for this."
In response, the military denied the allegation, stonewalled, and lied, claiming the opposite of what, in fact, happens. Soldier testimonies confirm it, saying dogs are trained and used specifically for assault and do it - not for a potential threat, but on the assumption that Palestinian detainees are offenders, whether or not true. As a result, highly aggressive dogs cause serious injuries. Unless muzzled, they present a clear and present danger, even to their handlers, and detainees report being terrified and bitten.
Mistreating Children
Soldiers treat them like adults, the Israeli penal code allowing it in defiance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, other international laws, and Israeli law (nominally) affording minors special protection. It prohibits injuring or psychologically harming them, and obligates anyone witnessing mistreatment to report it.
International law protects all civilians from violence and threats thereof, and requires occupiers to treat them humanely, especially children.
According to Protocol I to Fourth Geneva: "Children shall be the object of special respect and shall be protected against any form of indecent assault. The Parties to the conflict shall provide them with the care and aid they require, whether because of their age or for any other reason."
However, soldiers exploit children's weaknesses and regularly abuse them, at times seriously enough to require hospitalization. Like adults, they're handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten, including with rifle butts and boots.
"Accordingly, the ill treatment of minor Palestinian detainees constitutes the most extreme manifestation of a broader phenomenon whereby the various state authorities that implement the occupation routinely treat minor detainees as adults, ignoring the legal and human obligations to ensure special safeguarding and protection for those who have not yet reached the age of eighteen."
Military procedures make no distinction between adults and children, some as young as 12 or younger. Grave consequences thus happen regularly as part of Israel's systematic pattern of ill treatment and abuse.
Systematic Detainee Abuse and Mistreatment
A 2007 joint B'Tselem-Hamoked Center for the Defence of the Individual report titled, "Absolute Prohibition: The Torture and Ill-Treatment of Palestinian Detainees" confirmed PACTI's findings through victim testimonies. It said Israel disregards international law and its own throughout the arrest, transport, interrogation, and imprisonment process. Abuses range from "softening up" to torture. Common ones includes:
-- "Isolation from the outside world - prohibition on meetings between detainees and their attorneys or ICRC representatives;"
-- psychological pressure, including in "putrid, stifling" solitary confinement;
-- sleep deprivation and inadequate and poor food;
-- painfully binding hands and feet to a chair in the "shabah" position;
-- other forms of torture, including severe beatings;
-- threats and intimidation, including against family members;
-- use of informants to extract information, whether or not true; and
-- routine "cover up and whitewashing" of grievous crimes; rarely are abusive practices investigated; most are dismissed, and almost never are abusers punished.
Further, Israel's arrest-interrogation-imprisonment process "is significantly aided by the HCJ (High Court of Justice), which serves as a rubber stamp on orders which regulate isolation" and subsequent abuse, half or more of the time causing one or more injuries, at times serious.
According to (retired) Col. Gadi Amir, part of the process is "the dehumanization of the enemy, (that he, or she, is regarded as) an object" to be treated any way we wish. As a result, "we have become jaded and phenomena that we once considered horrifying we now seem to have become accustomed to...."
Yet the IDF won't acknowledge it, and by so doing "encourages and reinforces" abuse and degrading treatment, despite clear international and Israeli law prohibitions, binding at all times, under all circumstances, with no allowed exceptions.
Ill Treatment After Arrest Under Israeli Law
Under Israeli military law, "ill treatment" is an offense, prohibiting beating and other forms of abuse with offenders liable to three years imprisonment if charged and convicted. Under "aggravating circumstances," it's seven years.
Soldiers are legally responsible for detainees in their custody, and according to Israel's Military Court of Appeals:
"The discrepancy of powers and status between the person wielding control and authority and the person lacking the ability to resist leaves the victim defenseless against the abuse of the power held by the person in authority."
Yet the court has yet to address the minimum threshold beyond which ill treatment occurs as distinguished from the lesser offense of assault. In fact, however, abusive ill treatment happens whenever soldiers use violence or humiliating tactics against defenseless shackled, blindfolded detainees.
In all cases PACTI examined, ill treatment, assault or "assault in aggravating circumstances" occurred, in violation of articles 378 - 382 in Israel's penal code. Other offenses are also common, including injury, battery, forcible extortion, and ill treatment of a minor. Some violate military law, others civil or both.
"In any case, however, violence by soldiers against shackled detainees is a criminal phenomenon penalized under an entire system of offenses in Israeli criminal law."
Crime and Punishment
Despite Israeli law, military judges rarely act or go easy on offending soldiers, and compared to civil courts they're lax, regardless of how serious the offense. Yet the Military Court of Appeals ruled that commanders are responsible for preventing detainee ill treatment, especially if he ordered the abuse.
Yet, like US military law, a soldier who disobeys an illegal order isn't culpable. In fact, under paragraph 498 of the US Army Field Manual (FM) 27-10, any person, military or civilian, who commits a crime (even if ordered by a superior) under US or international law, is responsible for it and may be punished. It's the same under Israeli law, but enforced under neither, except in America to charge low level recruits to absolve their commanders.
In Israel, there is "no disagreement as to the clear illegality of an order to harm persons not involved in combat, or removed, and the obligation not to obey such an order." The standard for commanders is even higher, given their position of authority and reluctance of subordinates to disobey fearing punishment.
Failure to Enforce - Military Investigatory Bodies
Israel's Military Justice Code establishes three interrogation authorities - an examining officer, the Military Police Investigation Unit (MIU), and an investigative judge.
They're explicitly separate from debriefings by those involved in investigating incidents, including by commanders. Material from them is to go only to the military advocate general (MAG) or his representative. The latter then decides whether a debriefing offense was committed and if an investigation is warranted. If so, a summary of findings "shall not be transferred to a person undertaking a criminal investigation in accordance with the law." Nor "shall it indicate suspicion against any person involved in the incident."
An examining officer or investigative judge is charged with handling the case, the latter only if deaths are involved. The former may be a senior adjudicating military officer, another one appointed by him, or a MAG-designated military police person.
The examining officer may then hear witnesses, review evidence, and arrest suspects. He only decides whether to recommend prosecution, not order it himself. The MAG decides whether or not to proceed further. In practice, however, MIU army officers handle most ill treatment examinations, not trained lawyers familiar with the law.
The process of soldiers judging others in the ranks taints the whole process, especially the way Israel goes about it, taking care of its own. A clear conflict of interest delivers injustice.
Troublesome Forms of Investigation
They rarely happen, and when they do are effectively whitewashed, given that examining officers rely on operational debriefings supplied by the offending forces or their commanders. As a result, they're tainted and wholly unreliable. It shows up in how few are charged, let alone convicted of serious offenses, including torture and killings.
According to Law Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer:
"....There are two problems with the operational debriefing. Firstly, the person who undertakes it is not a professional investigator, with all due respect to the military commander. (In addition), when people have acted unlawfully, they have a natural motivation not to admit this, to deny it, to tell incorrect stories, and to back up each other's incorrect stories."
As a result, cases are closed for "lack of evidence," suppressed, and to absolve offenders, and it happens regularly.
Prosecutions, Convictions, and Punishment - Soldiers and Commanders
Based on IDF Spokesperson supplied figures, investigations of ill treatment rarely happen, and almost never lead to prosecutions or convictions. Out of hundreds of them launched, a mere handful of indictments followed, amounting to about two per year since September 2000. Of those, acquittals were common, and hand slaps (like 10 days imprisonment) followed convictions most often.
Also, practically never are commanders charged or prosecuted even when they issued direct orders. In rare instances, they face disciplinary hearings, in others, demotion. No senior commanders have been prosecuted for the offenses of their subordinates. In these cases, command responsibility "is an extremely restricted concept," an alien one.
B'Tselem explained that many complaints are closed "due to various defects during the processing of the case. (For example), months pass between the submission of the complaint and the transfer of the case to the MIU for investigation....The conclusion from all this is that the system does not attach the necessary importance to investigating cases of violence by security force personnel against Palestinian residents and ensuring that justice is meted out to those responsible. This conveys a lenient message to those in the field that such actions are not regarded as severe."
Even after beginning, investigations can drag out for months, so long, in fact, that those involved often complete their military service and leave.
Further, as long as the IDF investigates and prosecutes its own, justice is virtually impossible, unlike in civil courts. A possible solution is ending military involvement, so far not considered. Yet Human Rights Watch suggested that:
"a consensus is emerging in international law that military personnel should not be tried in military courts in cases when the victims are civilians, and that military jurisdiction systems should relate solely to offenses of a clearly military nature."
In December 2007, Yediot Ahronoth, Israel's most widely circulated newspaper, published a survey showing widespread soldier abuse during inspections at checkpoints alone. According to one soldier interviewed:
"When you deny thousands of people a day freedom of movement, it is impossible to do it in a nice way."
Yet the security establishment denies it and claims abuses there are exceptions, localized, and unusual, and military courts often quote a ruling declaring that "the basic rules of human morality and human dignity guide the Israel Defense Force," despite clear evidence of the opposite - "inconsistent with the testimonies and reports from the field, which leave no doubt that the phenomenon (is) widespread."
Steps for change include ending denial, exposing falsified evidence, obeying the law, and holding abusers accountable. Yet "the military does not make proper preparations for arrest operations; refrains from imposing responsibility on commanders for the ill treatment of detainees; and is extremely disinclined to launch investigations (to) indict soldiers suspected of abusing Palestinian detainees."
Civilian authorities are part of the coverup and denial, the Defense Ministry ignoring abuse and holding no one accountable. Crimes against Palestinians "are not considered worthy of....attention." The topic is unaddressed in the Knesset.
"A review of Knesset Protocols (from) January 2006 through April 2008 reveal(ed) that no discussions took place in the plenum of the Knesset regarding the ill treatment by soldiers of Palestinians in general, or Palestinians in particular."
In addition, no legislative action occurred, and the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, in charge of supervising the defense system, "failed abysmally to protect the public interest when it comes to ensuring the rule of law in the actions of the executive branch in the Territories." They deliberately ignored the issue, even during the height of the Intifada.
PACTI concluded saying:
"We hope that this report will encourage the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee to address the phenomenon of ill treatment of Palestinian detainees by soldiers as part of the responsibility the committee has accepted for scrutinizing, inspecting, and encouraging change on behalf of the public in matters relating to human rights violations in the Occupied Territories."
A Final Comment
To date, the Knesset hasn't acted, and, in fact, performed worse, the Mossawa Advocacy Center and Coalition Against Racism calling the current body the most racist in Israeli history in a 2010 report - Mossawa saying "almost every day" another Israeli Arab is victimized by racist acts, 100s in various categories confirmed by media and police reports.
In the Territories, Gaza remains under siege, and West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians endure daily neighborhood incursions, loss of homes, frequent arrests, killings, various other assaults, and violations of their dignity, civil and human rights on streets, at work, in their homes, and in detention.
On April 27, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported the killing of Ali Isma'el Ali Swaiti in Beit 'Awwa, his home demolished on top of him. PCHR condemned the crime, calling it an extrajudicial execution in charging politicians and commanders with war crimes.
On April 28, PCHR condemned Fatah's General Intelligence Service (working collaboratively with Israel) for harassing and arresting Palestinian writers Muhannad Salahat and Walid al-Hodali to prevent their free expression right to document West Bank crimes against innocent civilians.
Outlandish abuses happen daily, endorsed by IDF commanders, MKs, and the fascist Netanyahu government, as extremist and morally decadent as any in Israeli history. As a result, Palestinians suffer grievously, including in detention where torture remains official Israeli policy.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.